Demons
by RamenNoodlesInACup
Summary: A song fiction based of of the song Demons by Imagine Dragons. Listen to it, you'll like it. Implied Haymitch and Johanna, but definite Hayffie, Everlark, and Joga. Post Mockingjay and Post Epilogue. No lemons (that's a first) just a little fluff and angst. Mentions of a dead girl, but also mentions of a food fight. I don't know what I was on when I wrote this, so no flames please.


**Just a quickie to take a break from my story Trust Me, I'm A Rebel. Enjoy my friends. It starts out angsty, goes fluffy, then goes romantic, so yeah.**

She was dying. The doctors hadn't been as blunt, they had actually said that her heart was going to fail soon and she wouldn't have much longer. To Haymitch, this meant that she was dying.

"Hey there, baby girl." He said, putting some flowers by the nine-year-olds bedside. Her name was Lilac, but she preferred Lil or Baby Girl.

"Hi, daddy." She says. Her mother, Johanna Mason from Seven, had stepped out for coffee. They weren't together, no. It was a drunken one-night-stand after Effie and him had gotten in an argument. At the time, she hadn't been married to Gale.

"They uh... they said you'd be fine. You'll be going home in a few weeks." _In a casket, _he adds bitterly. She doesn't know that. Lilac thinks that her father tells the truth.

"Ooh, I can't wait." She goes back to the picture she had been coloring on the little desk they provided each hospital patient. It seems to be a picture of her vast family. With Haymitch and Effie's two other children, and Gale and Johanna's three others, she had a lot of siblings. She was the oldest though. Her brother on Haymitch's side had been born a week after her. Her sister, a year after that. Her siblings- a set of twins and another little girl- had been born a long time after. The twins were two, the boy only six months.

But she loved them all.

"I know you can't, Lil. Rebekah is here, she wanted to see you. You uh... want to let her in?" he asks her. Rebekah was eight, and loved Lilac fiercely. Of course Lil would want to see her, she'd been here all day.

"Yeah, she can come in." Lil says gently, her picture being her main focus. Becca, as she was called, enters not long after. She had gone with Johanna to get coffee, but instead received cocoa. She sits on the bed next to her half-sister and grins at her.

"Wan' some?" She asks. Lil nods and takes a tentative sip. She closes her eyes, relishing in the warm drink. It was nice.

"Mmm. Thanks Becca. Guess what," the girls launch into meaningless chitchat. Haymitch turns to Johanna, who sits next to him. Effie and Gale aren't allowed in the hospital, he figures they're at home with Katniss and Peeta, awaiting the news.

"They told me... she doesn't have a week Haymitch." For the first time since the rebellion, the woman looks on the verge of tears. How can Haymitch blame her?

"I know, I know Jo." he whispers. Johanna curls into his arm and rests her head on his shoulder. She sips her coffee and stares at the girls.

"It's funny, kind of. A bit taboo. I've seen you as my mentor, as my father almost, and then you go and get me knocked up with a child that only was allowed nine-years to live."

"What's so funny about that?" Haymitch grunts. Johanna can be heartless, but this is a new low.

"Well... my own dad, my real pa, got me knocked up when I was fourteen. I had the damned baby and my mother instantly took over. Everyone thought she was my sister, not my child. I told them I'd aborted the little bastard. Her name was... well... Lilac." Johanna blinks away tears.

"She lived to be exactly nine and a half. My dad knocked her up too. But her being so small, the baby couldn't live inside of her. They both died at nine. It's disgusting, my father was shot in the square for rape of a minor, albeit no one really cared. My ma hung herself after that, saying she couldn't live without him. All I had left were my other siblings, my older brother and my older sister. Then... well you know what happens from there." He does know what happens after that. She'd told them during one of their many rendezvous in the Capitol.

"It is a little taboo." Is all he can say. He glances at his watch. He has to go home now, although he doesn't want to leave. He has to get ready for work- he earned a little side money with Brenner making weapons and doing odd jobs here and there. He was teaching the nine-year-old the worth of a dollar -and then go cook dinner. Effie couldn't cook for shit.

"I have to go." He whispers to Johanna. She nods. Usually he'll take off work and spend the night at the hospital with her, but he needed a break from the porcelain white walls.

"I love you, Lil. C'mon Becca, time to go home." He says. Becca whines that she had just gotten there, even though they'd been there nearly all day. He hugs and kisses his daughter goodbye before taking his other daughter and leaving room 798. The duo walk home, Becca stopping to sniff an occasional daisy or to say hi to the passerby's. They arrive home only to find out the Brenner has a cold and can't go out today. Becca heads upstairs to keep him company along with Ryland, Katniss and Peeta's son who is the same age as him. Their daughter, who is thirteen, is painting Effie's nails on the couch.

"Hey there, baby." Haymitch says, and kisses his wife. Effie eagerly responds to the kiss, and almost has to push him away. Rusie- it was spelled in honor of Rue and Primrose -scrunches up her nose.

"Ew, use your bedroom." She says. Haymitch almost forgot that she'd already had that uncomfortable talk with Johanna, Katniss and Effie, and is thankful that he hasn't had to do the same for the boys. It would be_ worse_.

"Hey, kid, that's a good idea. Leave so we can." he grunts, opening a beer. It's hard to believe twelve years ago that Effie would be scolding him about said thing, but right she just blows her nails. He had relapsed twice before, so the only liquor in the house_ was_ beer, and not even the good kind. The cheap shit that couldn't give an infant a buzz.

"Ew, Uncle Haymitch. Your just a beast." Rusie says. She's a teenager, Haymitch reminds himself. Otherwise his comments would be more sexually explicit.

"Primruse, dear, please." Effie scolds. It's not even a real scolding, since Effie long since dropped her Capitol ways. It's just her way of saying 'shut up'.

"Yes, Aunt Effie." Ruse mutters, and goes back to her glittery toe-nails. Katniss and Peeta call them over for dinner, and they eat there with Gale and the kids. Johanna is still at the hospital, then. Gale's children have more normal names, the infant is Hazelle-Anne, after their mothers. The twins were simple too, Vera-Lee, after Gale's grandparents. And Lilac-Sue, after Johanna's sisters. Three girls, if you didn't get it.

The trio were mostly called by their second names, since the first ones were all too familiar. Currently three-year-olds Lee and Sue were arguing over who got to have the tea and who got to have the lemonade. The girls tried desperately to be different, but it's hard seeing as they were interested in most the same things.

"I want the lemonade!" Sue whines.

"No, I do!" Lee wails.

"What about both of you get lemonade?" Becca suggests.

"No! Then it'll make us twins! I don't wanna be related to that thing!" Lee growls. Sue gasps, then begins wailing.

"Da-a-a-addy! LEE CALLED ME A THING!" She shouts. Gale groans and hands Hazelle over to Haymitch. Haymitch rocks the crying infant, wondering why the man gave him the baby.

"Lee, stop calling your sister a thing. Sue, let Lee have the lemonade." Gale says tiredly. Sue pouts, and Lee grins wildly, as Effie leans over and pours the childrens drinks before pushing them away from the table. The kids groan at the thought they're not trusted to drink while eating, but they have a bad habit of wasting food. Even Rusie, who is thirteen, is not allowed her drink. The adults however, are poured glasses of wine. Then the dinner begins.

It ends in a food fight, due to the fact that Brenner had sneezed a pea into Rusie's hair. She had scream and flung her spoonful of pea soup at Sue, then got angry and threw a piece of beef at her. Said beef missed and hit Peeta in the nose. He choked on his roll, and coughed it into Effie's lap. She jumped up at the soggy lump of bread, slapping Haymitch in the face. He had been confused as to why he was slapped, so he had taken a spoonful of cabbage and dumped it down her bra. And then she proceeded to pour wine over his head.

It all went on from there.

It ended with the table being flipped and used as a fort. Haymitch, Peeta, and the kids against Gale, Katniss, Effie and Rusie. It had been kind of fun. But then they had to clean up the mess. Haymitch and Effie have to drag Becca and Brenner- who demand to spend the night -home. They're showered and tucked into bed- Haymitch and Effie curled on the couch with glasses of wine -when they get the call. Johanna is blubbering, her words unintelligible.

"Jo, slow down. What happened?" Haymitch asks. Effie looks up at him with wide blue eyes, her brown hair neatly swept out of them.

"Haymitch?" she whispers. But he's broken down into gibberish. He stumbles over the couch to get his coat, Effie following quickly behind. She goes over to Katniss' to ask if she can watch the kids. She meets Haymitch at the hospital. He's enveloped Johanna into his arms, and is rocking her as she sobs. She presumes the worst. Gale is there too, but his comfort is nothing compared to Haymitch's right now.

"She's gone, Effie. Lils is gone." Gale whispers. It takes Effie all of her not to cry. She needs to be strong for Haymitch right now. But she'd loved Lilac as her own.

"She was nine, damnit!" Johanna wails, her tears soaking Haymitch's shirt. Haymitch cries too, but silently. Tears fall over his stubbly cheeks into Johanna's short hair. Effie enters the room, where the little girl lays. Her once bright blue-brown eyes (Yeah, it had shocked them too. What an original eye colour) closed, her blonde and brown hair falling in ringlets around her face. She looks positively angelic and peaceful in the instant. Effie kisses her cold forehead, and then pulls the sheet over her body.

"We fought our battles, Haymitch! We did what we had to do, eliminated the Games! Why must our children still die?" Johanna asks. Effie doesn't know exactly how she feels, as she's never experienced the Games. But she's experienced enough, seen enough children die and enough battles lost and won. It must hurt more knowing that Lilac died on the day that would have been the reaping.

"I dunno, Jo. I just don't know." It's the first time Haymitch has spoken, and his voice is raspy. Lilac's doctor, Dr. Thernbin, an ex-capitolite pulls Effie and Gale aside.

"Are you their siblings?" He asks. Effie shakes her head.

"I'm his wife, and he's her husband. It's a long story." She says exasperated.

"We uhm... we're going to take the body down to the morgue. Just get them home and in bed. Get them some rest... start making funeral arrangements and such." He says.

"Thanks you, Doctor." Effie says, although he didn't help much. Gale and Effie get their respectful spouses home and in bed, like the Doctor instructed. After Haymitch had showered again and crawled into bed, Effie rests her head on his shoulder.

"I loved her too, you know. I know Johanna is her mother and all, but I was her step-mother. I can understand too." She says after a deep breath. Haymitch sighs and kisses her head.

"I know you did. I know you do. We'll love her forever. I know you want to comfort me, but Johanna and I bred this child. It was our doing, and so we need each other right now." He says. Effie is satisfied with this and she curls into his arms.

"Haymitch, I'm proud of you." She whispers before drifting into sleep. Haymitch sighs again.

"I know." And with that, they drift into dreamland. His dreams are filled with Lilac, his Ma and Pa, his old girl, his brother. Dreams of the ones he has lost. But they also are filled with Katniss and Peeta, with Effie, Brenner, Rebekah, Sue, Lee, Johanna, Gale, Anne, Rusie and Ryland. His new, albeit big, family.

The ones that weren't lost.

And although they'll remember Lil forever, they'll move on and work with what they've got. They'll kill their demons and they'll move on. Because after all, they were a family. And no devil or demon could kill that blessing.

_They say it's what you make_

_I say it's up to fate _

_It's woven in my soul_

_I need to let you go_

_Your eyes, they shine so bright_

_I want to save that light_

_I can't escape this now_

_Unless you show me how_

_-Demons, Imagine Dragons_

**Ugh... I dunno. I'm writing this at like, 3:15 in the morning. I'm dirt tired so I don't know if it's good. Hope you like though.**

**R&R please.**


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